Van Leersum sets school record in 400 hurdles at WSC Relays

Bas van Leersum captured the 400 hurdles in the WSC Relays on Friday and set a school record in the process.

The sophomore from the Netherlands ran 53.32 to beat the 2006 school record of Chad Freeman by .07 seconds. The Vaqueros posted four victories in the track and field meet at Ventura College that featured 11 schools.

"Bas got out well in the first 200 and he's been struggling on the second turn," explained SBCC coach Scott Fickerson. "Today his mechanics were much smoother and that made all the difference."

The Vaqueros won three field events with Luke McAllister taking the high jump in 1.95 (6-5), Aaron Mateski capturing the javelin (51.69) and Marvin Magg topping the field in the shot put with a PR of 13.8 meters (45-3¾).

It was a banner day for Magg, a sophomore from Germany, who won the shot put, took second in the javelin (51.28), fifth in the hammer with a PR of 39.33 and sixth in the discus (38.39), all on his birthday.

"Our field events showed up today and showed off our depth," said Fickerson. "We had a lot of good marks on the track as well but just couldn't pull out a victory. This was a good final tune-up for our first conference meet."

The Vaqueros open conference play on Friday with the WSC North meet at Bakersfield.